Tourism Wealth & Beauty Threatened By School Year Change

Tourism Statistics Foreign Arrivals IN The Philippines

Image: Dept. of Tourism

The recent changes in the school year announced by many of schools in the Philippines may threaten the Philippine tourism industry and that will severely damage the wealth, health and beauty of the Philippines.

The Department of Education has mulled the idea of changing the school year for some time, in order that the academic year become congruent with schools and colleges in North America and Europe. It has now approved the changes for a number of the nation’s school and colleges. The changes mean that instead of the end-of-year break falling at or around the end of March, with a long break until June, the end-of-year break shall fall in June and last until August.

 

Most countries around the globe arrange their end-of-year breaks to coincide with fine weather that will allow families to enjoy an extended vacation together. In northern latitudes that means the period from June to August; in southern latitudes that means November to January. The Philippines has traditionally enjoyed fine weather from April through June, hence the end-of-year break falling near the end of March.

Excluding the long Easter break that a significant number of countries enjoy, if we overlay the traditional end-of-year breaks with tourist arrivals from around the globe we see that foreign tourist arrivals ramp up in December (from southern latitudes) and tail off towards May, other foreign arrivals increase in July and August (data from Department of Tourism 2012/2013). Domestic tourism fills the large gap that typically exists from March through the end of June, with many families traveling to the provinces to enjoy the extreme beauty of the Philippines.

With the proposed end-of-year break moving to the June through August period there will be a large hole in the tourism year between March and June. And, because the weather is not normally attractive for extended and long distance domestic travel during the periods of July through September, it is highly likely that domestic tourism volumes (approximately 90% of all tourists in the Philippines) will experience a significant decline.

The period from July to October is already a relatively quiet period in most Philippine tourist locations – because of the less than predictable weather that affects most outdoor activities and hampers scheduled travel by air and by sea. With the prospect of losing much of the domestic travel high-season (March through June) and having a less than full replacement, during July through September, many tourist destinations and small tourism businesses will likely be hard pressed to make a profit./p>

Why is the school year change link to tourism important beyond the simple numbers?

The school year change link to tourism is important because much of the Philippines is just beginning to realize the full benefits from increased tourism, in terms of the creation of community-led tourist projects that fund sustainable, small businesses and provide a real avenue to alleviate poverty.

The primary benefits of tourism are that the income derived is generally spread through all levels of every participating community instead of being controlled by a few ‘kings of industry’. If we remove the benefits of increased tourism then marginally sustainable communities will probably fall back to selling their assets – mostly minerals and rainforest – in order to maintain their new-found, cash-based economies In this sad eventuality, the future wealth, health and beauty of our country will be placed at greater risk . . . if you have traveled to (much of) Surigao, Benguet, Zambales and Mindanao, and if you have followed the story of the destruction at the center of Marinduque then you will know what the future could hold.

If you want to maintain and promote the wealth, health and beauty of our spectacular country through tourism, please don’t change the school year.